Jim Walsh

Dr. Jim Walsh is an expert in international security and a Research Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Security Studies Program (SSP).

Dr. Walsh's research and writings focus on international security, and in particular, topics involving nuclear weapons and terrorism. Dr. Walsh has testified before the United States Senate on the issue of nuclear terrorism and on Iran’s nuclear program. He is one of a handful of Americans who has traveled to both Iran and North Korea for talks with officials about nuclear issues. The British newspaper, The Independent, named Dr. Walsh and his co-authors as having offered one of the 10 best and original ideas of 2008.

He is the international security contributor to NPR’s “Hear and Now,” and a contributor for WGBH (PBS, Boston), the NBC affiliate in Boston (WHDH), Al Jazeera America, and recently CNN. He also contributes a regular column for WBUR (NPR-Boston). His comments and analysis have appeared in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, the Economist, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and numerous other national and international media outlets (over 1000 TV appearances since 2001). His film credits include Testament (Paramount Pictures, 2004), Meltdown (FX channel, 2004), and Fortress Australia (Australia Broadcast Corporation, 2002).

His recent and upcoming writings include “Rivals, Adversaries, and Partners: Iran and Iraq in the Middle East” in Iran and Its Neighbors, Palgrave Macmillan (2015); “50 Years After Gilpatrick: Reflections on Nuclear Age,” in Reassessing the Global Nuclear Order – Past, Present, and Future (2015);  [Contributor], Iran and Its Neighbors: Regional Implications for U.S. Policy of a Nuclear Agreement, The Iran Project (2014); “The Additional Protocol in the Middle East and North Africa: Explaining Lag in Adoption, in State Behavior and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime, University of Georgia Press (2014); "Brutality Is Not Capability: A Guide To Understanding ISIS,” Cognescenti, WBUR.com. WBUR/National Public Radio (2014); "Opportunities for a Resolution of the Iranian Nuclear Dispute," with Thomas Pickering and William Luers, New York Review of Books, (August 15. 2013); [Contributor], “Weighing the Costs and Benefits of Military Action Against Iran,” The Iran Project (2012); and “Re-conceptualizing Security Assurances,” in Security Assurances and Nuclear Nonproliferation, Stanford University Press (2012).

Before coming to MIT, Dr. Walsh was Executive Director of the Managing the Atom project at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a visiting scholar at the Center for Global Security Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He has taught at both Harvard University and MIT. Dr. Walsh received his Ph.D from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.